Help! Battery Cable Routing

[chuckhinva]

Took my '96 coupe in for service. Dealer said the positive battery cable was laying on the exhaust and needed to be rerouted. Estimated cost: $495. Anybody know the secret?

 

[Hib Halverson]

Jack the car up and reroute it yourself. Save 500 bucks. Probably need a couple of cable ties.

If you find the cable has been damaged by sitting on the exhaust, get a new one from RockAuto.

 

[boomdriver]

Took my '96 coupe in for service. Dealer said the positive battery cable was laying on the exhaust and needed to be rerouted. Estimated cost: $495. Anybody know the secret?

Seriously????????

WOW

Now you know why some of us refer to dealership shops as "Stealerships"...
Thats a pretty amazing price for 2 minutes of work on a lift...perhaps 5 on the ground.

I'm assuming that they are doing that by the book, pulling the starter, (labor rate) and the 2 cable clamps that are located somewhere along the way. The price of copper wire is up but not that far up..

You can do this yourself and if you can get under it, possibly without pulling the starter.
Granted, some cars have to have the exhaust loosened or dropped to get the starter out. Mine is one with an aftermarket big Y pipe, but not all are like that. $500 is a good start on a top end job....

Something that I would do is to take your new cable, and insulate it by shoving it thru a length of heater hose. You may have to make a custom cable and weld or solder the ends on later after pushing it thru the hose. This adds a layer of insulation and prevents chaffing. Its gonna get on or rub on something from time to time. Why the car was designed this way...? who knows.

As a temp fix you can split some heater hose, wrap it around the wounded section of the battery cable, then tie-strap it tight on the cable and then strap the whole thing to something solid that won;t let it lay on the exhaust again.

Anytime there is a hose, cable or harness that has to stretch across, on or around the engine I insulate it somehow and secure it. Learned my lesson on $1,000,000 pieces of equipment that would go down because a $20 hydraulic hose rubbed on a frame edge and blew out...